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Softonic review

By Niamh Lynch

Excellent

9

NoScript is a security add-on for Firefox that aims to prevent auto-executing plugins that could put you at risk of malicious scripts, clickjacking and attacks.

NoScript works by automatically preventing scripts from executing on the websites you visit. If you click on the little NoScript icon in the lower right corner, you’ll be able to see what scripts are being prevented and decide which you want to allow and which you want to exclude for security reasons.

The culprits that NoScript avoids are JavaScript, Java and Flash and other plugins. If you know a site to be safe, you can allow the scripts, either temporarily or globally. You can also permit just some of the scripts that are in place, or you can allow everything on a given page, rather than a whole site.

The NoScript configuration options are extensive and to get the most out of it, you’ll need to put some effort in. Even so, there is plenty of help available on the developer’s website and around the web. You can add safe websites to the NoScript whitelist, configure what appears in the context menu, as well as specifying more technical details.

If this is too much for you, however, don’t worry. Using NoScript is actually very easy – allow the add-on to block what it deems appropriate and only unblock if you really trust the website you’re visiting.

This whitelist based pre-emptive script blocking approach prevents exploitation of security vulnerabilities (known and even not known yet!) with no loss of functionality.

You can enable JavaScript/Java execution for sites you trust with a simple left-click on the NoScript status bar icon (look at the picture), or using the contextual menu, for easier operation in popup statusbar-less windows.

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